Constitution Compromises Essay

To the founders of the new American nation, it was important to make sure all states of the union stayed together. To ensure no states succeeded, many compromises were made in the ratification of the constitution, including those regarding representation and slavery, which allowed the majority of the population to be content and successfully governed the nations. Although the state’s populations were unequal, they all wanted their fair share of say in the government; the problem was they couldn’t decide what that fair share was. Their decision to create a bicameral government satisfied both the sparsely and densely populated states. The smaller states got their representation by the Senate, while the larger states got their wishes fulfilled by the House of Representatives. This compromise was ultimately for the better, being that a bicameral system has perks associated with it. For instance, a dual representation situation increases the chance that representatives have direct contact with the citizens, thus representing their population better. The two houses ultimately better served their country and resolved a conflict as well. Slavery was also an issue that saw a lot of dispute. Generally, Abolitionists in the North wanted to abolish slavery completely; however, this didn’t sit right with the South, whose economy desperately depended on slaves to flourish. There were two compromises about slavery. The first compromise ended the slave trade, and the second addressed the accounting of slaves in a state’s population for the census, as well as taxes. Being that the northern views were already stepping on the South’s toes, they couldn’t afford any clash to bring about talk of a separation from the union. Their decision to account 3/5 of a slave when apportioning taxes and representatives favored neither side in this dispute. This was for the better in that the southern states couldn’t really argue with the decision and stayed with the Union. Because the compromises that were made in the making of the constitution aimed to please, they worked by ensuring all states were happy, thus more likely to listen to the government and stay in the union.